As from 23 Feb, Amazon, who own the Internet Movie Database have disabled and removed the Message Boards associated with IMDb. In doing so - for me - they have wrenched the heart out of the website.
The discussions were a rich repository of the reactions, impressions, perceptions, culture and values of people plrepared to watch films and comment on them. They contained intelligent, insightful, analytical comments and statements which were of great value in making judgements about films and cinema generally. And they contained trolling, stupidity, cultural ignorance and demonstrations of a total lack of critical awareness.
And it was frequently the latter points which I found were most instructive. The largest number of contributors were American (mostly young) and what frequently appeared in their submissions was lack of understanding of irony, ignorance of the cultures, values or ideologies existing beyond the boundaries of the USA and the inability to separate fact from fiction - or non-fiction from fiction.
The Message Boards were an encapsulation of the culture which placed Donald Trump in the White House.
